


Santa

by bunnysworld



Series: Have a Camelot Christmas 2017 [6]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 07:36:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12930561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnysworld/pseuds/bunnysworld
Summary: Merlin is desperate. The Santa he hired to bring gifts to his group of special needs kids cancels on him last minute and all his friends are busy.





	Santa

**Author's Note:**

> Have a Camelot Christmas! Day 6.
> 
> As it is 'Nikolaustag' (St. Nicolas' Day?) here in my country on the 6th of December, I decided to bring you a Santa-y drabble today.  
> On the night of the 5th, you have to put your freshly shined boot in front of your door. If you've been a good kid, Nikolaus will fill it with nuts, tangerines, oranges, some sweets and a chocolate Santa for you to find on the morning of December 6.

Merlin groaned in frustration as he hung up the phone.

“What is it?” Gwen looked over sympathetically. 

“He just cancelled on me.” Merlin was desperate. 

“Oh no!” Setting her spoon down, Gwen reached across the table for Merlin’s hand. “What are you going to do now?”

Slumping down even more in his chair, Merlin shook his head. “Where am I going to get a Santa on such short notice?”

It was Friday and that very night, he would have to tell the group of special needs kids he volunteered at each Friday that Santa, who they had been looking forward to for weeks, wouldn’t come. It made no sense if he showed up in the Santa suit, they would see right through him. 

“You could call the agency?”

Merlin shook his head at Gwen’s suggestion. “They are booked out. It was difficult to get this one and I booked this two months ago.”

“Lance and Gwaine are away.” Gwen tried to come up with someone. “How about Percy? He’d make a good Santa!”

“He’s busy with the Christmas party of his rugby boys.”

“Which has to be tonight as well.” Gwen sighed. 

“Yes.” Merlin sat in his chair gloomily. The kids would be so disappointed. “I’ll just have to hand out the gifts and tell them Santa couldn’t make it but sends his best Ho Ho Ho.”

“You could send an email to all here at the company? Maybe someone has experience and isn’t busy tonight or can postpone his plans and do this for your children?”

“There are so many people that I don’t even know. I wouldn’t want to have some creep scaring the kids. You need to know what you are doing, some of them don’t react like the children you know.” 

Gwen squeezed his hand. “I know. How about…me?”

“You?” Merlin chuckled. “They may have special needs but they aren’t dumb. They would know that you are Mrs. Claus in the blink of an eye.”

“We could tell them that Mrs. Claus helps out?”

“I love you for suggesting this, Gwen, but…” He shook his head.

They sat in the cafeteria deep in thought, taking no notice of the people around them.

 

Taking a deep breath, Merlin tried to smile at the assembled children. He had dreaded this moment the whole afternoon but he needed to tell them, there was no use in postponing the inevitable. 

“Hey, everyone.” He stood up. “We sang Christmas songs and had wonderful cookies that your parents provided, thank you very much.” He nodded at the parents who were there. “And I know that we are all waiting for Santa Claus.”

Merlin swallowed hard when the kids erupted in cheers and their eyes were shining excitedly. “I don’t even know how to tell you…” He really didn’t. How could he break those little hearts with news like that?

From the corridor, there were heavy booted footsteps, little bells were ringing and everybody turned their heads towards the door when they heard a loud “Ho Ho Ho!”

What was going on there? Had the guy changed his mind and showed up anyway? 

“Santa!” The kids yelled all excitedly when indeed someone in a red Santa suit, white long beard and Santa hat appeared. 

“Hello, children!”

Who was this? For a moment, Merlin suspected that Gwen had taken over, but it was clearly a man and he was a lot taller than Gwen. 

The children kept talking excitedly or just sat there and stared in awe, as Santa made his way through the room, followed by a golden retriever that was wearing a headband thing with felt reindeer antlers and a collar with little bells on it. 

Santa put down the big sack next to the comfy armchair they had prepared for him to sit in before Merlin arrived. 

“This,” he gestured towards the dog, “is Snowy. She grew up with the reindeer and” he winked at the kids, “I think she believes she is a reindeer herself!”

The children squealed in delight and the dog wagged her tail excitedly and went to make friends with them.

“My friend Merlin here told me that you all have been really good this year.”

Merlin, who hadn’t moved since Santa came in, blinked again. Who was this? All his friends were busy tonight and this was someone who must have known about his predicament. Had Gwen made a few phone calls? 

“You know what that means?” Santa asked the kids.

“Presents!” Some of them cried out. 

“Yes!” Santa laughed and even though it was one of those fake deep-belly laughs that Santas just laughed, it sounded familiar. “Come on, Merlin, I can’t do this on my own, I’m way too old to remember everything!”

Merlin sprang into action. Whoever it was, he was his saviour! So he got close and when he looked into Santa’s eyes, they looked very familiar, too. These eyes were unmistakable, so blue and so intense that they haunted Merlin’s dreams. They belonged to nobody else but Arthur Pendragon, son of the company’s big boss, the man Merlin had a crush on since they first met. “Arthur?” He mouthed.

Arthur Santa winked at him. “Hand me the presents, I don’t know your kids!”

Nodding, Merlin quickly pulled the sack with gifts from behind the arm chair, hoping that the kids wouldn’t even notice, they were so excited and happy that Santa had come to visit them. 

No matter what Merlin had imagined, the shining eyes and the shy approaches of ‘his’ kids was even better as Arthur read out the names on the packages and the description of the kid from the book Merlin had handed him. Snowy – or whatever the dog’s name really was – had lost her reindeer antlers at some point, but took it as her job to sniff at every gift and stay close to the child who unwrapped it. 

Merlin’s heart was still beating quickly when all the presents were unwrapped and all photos taken. 

“Alright, children.” Santa said. “As much as I would love to stay to hear more of your songs and your poems, to draw and play with you, there are other children waiting for me tonight, so Snowy and I will have to leave now.”

There were disappointed murmurs and some tears, too, but the children all waved. “Bye, Santa!”

“Good bye, children. Have a happy Christmas!” With that, Santa left the room, making just as much noise on the way as he had when he came in. 

Merlin followed and when he was sure that the kids couldn’t hear him, he called out. “Arthur!”

Arthur had pulled the white beard under his chin. “Fuck, this thing was killing me.”

“Arthur…how…why?”

Shrugging, Arthur looked anywhere but at Merlin. “I overheard you at lunch and since I had no better plans for tonight…” He shrugged again. “I called Gwen and she gave me all the details.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much. You have no idea what this means to the children.” Merlin was so relieved that he could have kissed Arthur. Which, of course, he couldn’t do. Arthur was still his boss, somehow, and he had done this to save the kids’ day. 

“Just the children?” Arthur grinned.

“No, not just the children. I was really desperate and you showed up at just the right time. I will never be able to make that up to you.”

“Oh, I have an idea.” 

When had Arthur come so close? And especially…why? It wasn’t good for Merlin’s crush that he was able to smell Arthur’s aftershave. “Yeah?”

“How about…you’ll buy Santa a beer when you’re done here?”

Merlin grinned. “That I can do.”


End file.
